The Physiology of Taste (7 page)

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
French expedition successfully restores Bourbon king of Spain. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony completed.

DATE:
1824

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Mary Randolph:
The Virginia House-Wife
.
Barante:
Histoire des ducs de Bourgogne
(to 1826).
Mignet:
Histoire de la révolution française
.
Birth of Dumas
fils
.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Elections return an Ultra Chamber. Death of Louis XVIII; accession of his brother the former comte d’Artois as Charles X (to 1830). Delacroix:
The Massacre of Scio
. Rossini becomes director of the Théâtre Italien in Paris.

DATE:
1825

AUTHOR’S LIFE:
Pays for the printing of his book as the publisher is unwilling to take the risk.
It is published, anonymously, in early December to immediate public interest, and causes a considerable stir amongst his own set.

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Raisson
et al.: Nouvel Almanach des gourmands
.
Saint-Simon:
Nouveau Christianisme
.
Thierry:
Histoire de la conquête de l’Angleterre par les Normands
.
Mérimée:
La Théâtre de Clara Gazul
.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Law against sacrilege. Compensation granted to
émigrés
.

DATE:
1826

AUTHOR’S LIFE:
The President of the
Cour de cassation
insists that he attend the expiatory Mass held annually for Louis XVI on 21 January – something he has hitherto contrived to avoid. Already suffering from influenza, BS collapses in the street immediately afterwards.
Pneumonia develops. Surrounded by his friends, he dies on 2 February, calmly philosophical. Rights in his book are sold to the publisher, Sautelet, for 1,500 francs.

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Balzac:
La Physiologie du mariage
(first version).
Casanova (d. 1798):
L’Histoire de ma vie
.
Vigny:
Cinq-mars; Poèmes antiques et modernes
.
Hugo:
Odes et ballades; Bug-Jargal
.
Alibert:
La Physiologie des passions
.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Sixteen-year-old Alexis Soyer is already a well-known chef at Douix, boulevard des Italiens, with twelve juniors working under him. Fleeing to London after the 1830 revolution he soon becomes the foremost celebrity chef of Victorian England, taking a prestigious job as chef de cuisine at the Reform Club (1838–50), where he helps Charles Barry design the kitchen and commands a salary of £1000 p.a. He introduces many innovations including cooking with gas, refrigerators cooled by cold water, and ovens with adjustable temperatures; his kitchens become so famous that they are opened for conducted tours. On the occasion of Queen Victoria’s coronation (28 June 1838) he prepares a breakfast for 2,000 guests at the Club. Niépce photographs from nature.

DATE:
1827

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Raisson
et al.: Le Code gastronome: Manuel complet de gastronomie
and
Code de gastronomie transcendente
.
Hugo’s Preface to
Cromwell
.
Audubon:
Birds of America
(to 1838).

DATE:
1828

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Carême:
Le Cuisinier parisien
.
Grimod de La Reynière
et al.: Le Gastronome français ou l’Art de bien vivre
.

DATE:
1829

AUTHOR’S LIFE:
First reprint of the
Physiologie
. The book has remained in print to this day.

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Balzac:
Les Chouans
.

DATE:
1830

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Raisson
et al.: Almanach perpetuel des gourmands
.
Balzac: “Nouvelle théorie du déjeuner”, “Physiologie gastronomique”.
Durand (“Le Carême de la cuisine provençale”):
Le Cuisinier Durand
.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
July Revolution: abdication of Charles X and accession of duc d’Orléans as Louis Philippe, King of the French.

DATE:
1831

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Balzac:
L’Auberge rouge; Le Peau de chagrin
.

DATE:
1832

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Roques:
Histoire des champignons comestibles et vénémeux
. Peytel:
Physiologie de la poire, par Louis Benoît, jardinier
.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Death in Vienna of the duc de Reichstadt, son of Napoleon I.
Death of Germain Charles Chevet, famous Parisian caterer and food retailer whose shop in the Palais Royal was frequented by BS and Grimod de La Reyniére. He founded la Maison Chevet, a dynasty of caterers.

DATE:
1833

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Carême:
L’Art de la cuisine
française au dix-neuvième siècle
(3 vols, to 1835) : 2 further vols added by Armand Plumery, 1843-4).

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Death of Antonin Carême. Work on the Arc de triomphe resumed and completed in 1836.

DATE:
1835

AUTHOR’S LIFE:
Balzac’s article on Brillat-Savarin in Michaud’s
Biographie universelle
.

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Balzac:
La fille aux yeux d’or
.

DATE:
1837–8

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Roques:
Nouveau traité des plantes usuelles
.

DATE:
1839

AUTHOR’S LIFE:
New edition of the
Physiologie
with a preface by Richerand and, as an appendix, Balzac’s
Traité des excitants modernes
.

DATE:
1840–42

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Physiologies
are all the rage: mass-produced and enormously popular, more than 120 pseudo-scientific sketches about Parisian social types – e.g.
Physiologie des amoureux, Physiologie du bas-bleu, Physiologie des demoiselles de magasin
– are published in pocket-sized volumes (many by Aubert and Philipon) and sold on the streets. They are illustrated by well-known caricaturists such as Daumier and Gavarni.
Les Français peints par eux-mème
, are the coffee-table equivalents.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Reburial of Napoleon in the Invalides.

DATE:
1844

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Fayot:
Classiques de la table
includes de Cussy’s
Art culinaire
.

DATE:
1846

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Soyer:
The Gastronomic Regenerator
.
Briffault:
Paris à table
.
Balzac:
La Cousine Bette
.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Birth of Auguste Escoffier, central figure in modernizing of French cuisine and author of
Le Guide Culinaire
(1903).

DATE:
1847

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Balzac:
Le Cousin Pons
.

DATE:
1848

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Sue:
Les Sept Péchés capitaux
.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Revolution in Paris. Abdication of Louis Philippe. Second Republic established with Louis Napoleon (nephew of Napoleon III) as its president.

DATE:
1850

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Baron Brisse leaves his job at the department of Water and Forestry to pursue interests in gastronomy and writing. Probably the first food journalist, he is offered a regular column in
La Liberté
. Not a cook himself, he comes under a lot of flak for his more outlandish recipes.

DATE:
1851–2

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Baudelaire: “On Wine and Hashish Compared as Means for the Multiplication of Individuality” (Baudelaire begins by insulting BS, of whom he was not a fan.)

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Louis Napoleon’s
Coup d’état
and proclamation of Empire.
To coincide with the Great Exhibition in London’s Hyde Park, Soyer’s opens his “Universal Symposium to all Nations” – a flamboyant fashionable restaurant in Kensington Gore, with capacity to feed 5000 people daily.
Though well patronised it is a financial catastrophe, and closes after only three months.

DATE:
1853

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Viart, Fouret, Délan:
Le
Cuisinier national de la ville et de la campagne
.
Sydney Whiting:
Memoirs of a
Stomach: Written by Himself
,
That All Who Eat May Read –
a best-seller in its day.

DATE:
1855

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Soyer:
A Shilling Cookery for the People
.

DATE:
1856

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Flaubert:
Madame Bovary
.
Dubois/Bernard:
La Cuisine classique
.

DATE:
1859

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Monselet:
La Cuisinière poétique
.

DATE:
1860

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Baudelaire:
Les Paradis artificiels
.

DATE:
1862

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Flaubert:
Salammbô
.
Monselet:
Almanach des gourmands
(6 volumes, to 1870).

DATE:
1863–4

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Dumas,
père: Lettres sur la cuisine à un prétendu gourmand napolitain
.

DATE:
1867

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Gouffé:
Le Livre de cuisine
.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
On 7 June gastronomic superstar Adolphe Dugléré serves his famous
Dîner des trois empereurs
at the Café Anglais. Tsar Alexander II, his son the future Alexander III, William I of Prussia (and Bismarck) attend. The evening is reputed to be the most magnificent ever to have been hosted in a restaurant (though the Tsar complained about the absence of foie gras-it was duly sent on to him in October, when in season).

DATE:
1868

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Brisse:
Les 366 menus du Baron Brisse
.
Dubois:
La Cuisine de tous les pays
.

DATE:
1869

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Flaubert:
L’Education sentimentale
.

DATE:
1870–71

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Franco-Prussian War. Battle of Sedan. Surrender of Napoleon III; republic declared. Siege and surrender of Paris. Paris Commune.

DATE:
1872

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Dumas
père: Grand dictionnaire de la cuisine
.
Gouffé:
Le Livre de pâtisserie; Le Livre des conserves
.

DATE:
1873

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Zola:
Le Ventre de Paris
.

DATE:
1875

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Gouffé:
Le Livre de soupes et des potages
.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Constitution of Third Republic voted.

DATE:
1877

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Zola:
L’Assommoir
.

DATE:
1878

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Dubois:
Nouvelle cuisine bourgeoise pour la ville et pour la campagne
.

DATE:
1879

AUTHOR’S LIFE:
Charles Monselet introduces a new edition of the
Physiologie
.

DATE:
1882

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Brisse:
La Cuisine en Caréme
.

DATE:
1884

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Huysmans:
A Rebours
.
Maupassant: “Boule de suif”.

DATE:
1885

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Maupassant:
Bel-Ami
.

DATE:
1887

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Maupassant: “Le Rosier de Madame Housson”.

DATE:
1892

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Lucien Tendret (great-nephew of BS):
La Table au pays de Brillat-Savarin
.

DATE:
1894

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Chatillon-Plessis:
La vie à table à la fin du XIXe siècle
includes a collective portrait of the
Galerie des Gastronomes et Practiciens français, de Brillat-Savarin à nos jours
.

I made this translation by myself, and can therefore thank none for it but perhaps my first teacher, who helped me learn to read. I have put it into the simplest words I know, since I feel that it is a singularly straightforward and unornamented piece of prose to have been written in a flowery literary period. I have kept as far as possible its measured rhythm, and have changed into colons only a few overburdened commas and semicolons. As I have more than once pointed out along the way, the Professor’s idiosyncrasies of spelling foreign words I have accentuated with
SPACED SMALL CAPS
, to differentiate them from his own stressed words. I emerge from the real ordeal of translation with an even realer humility.

As for the numerous glosses which I have added to the text, I can give thanks, but not enough, to several friends who have helped me. Lawrence Clark Powell and Robert Vosper of the Library of the University of California at Los Angeles let me call upon them for anything I wanted from their prodigious stacks, and H. Richard Archer of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library in Los Angeles did the same from his more limited and perhaps more precious shelves. The three of them added hours of their own and their staffs’ time to track down abstruse, possibly unimportant, but interesting notes for me. Miss Althea Warren, then head of the Los Angeles Public Libraries, and one of her witty and seemingly tireless assistants named Armine Mackenzie, were unreasonably generous of their time and advice. I could use the rare and often fantastic gastronomical library of Harold H. Price of San Francisco. I could call on the energetic and profound knowledge of Dr. Henry B. Bieler of Pasadena, for not only biological but spiritual data connected with the miracle of hunger and its perils and pleasures. I could depend upon the conscience of Frances Wolf to plunge dauntlessly into batch after batch of finicky transcribing of my two-finger type. In countless moments of despair, chagrin, exasperation (but never boredom), I could turn to the ruthless editorial eye of Donald Friede.

For all this I hold myself blessed among translators, and I end my honest labor with the hope that what I have done will find more favor than blame among the four (and more) categories of gastronomers that Brillat-Savarin wrote of in 1825. It has taken me only some two years to translate what he spent perhaps twenty-five or thirty years writing.

That is as it should be.

M
.
F
.
K
.
FISHER
1949

The need for simplicity which Brillat-Savarin helped to strengthen in me is even stronger than it was in 1949 and I see no need to add to what I wrote then, except perhaps to avow that my love for the old lawyer burns as brightly now as ever.

M
.
F
.
K
.
FISHER
1971